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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24709741">when I was a boy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzukiblu/pseuds/suzukiblu'>suzukiblu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alien Gender/Sexuality, Aliens, Communication, Established Relationship, F/M, Gender Identity, Genderfluid Character, M/M, Pansexual Character, Shapeshifting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:54:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,447</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24709741</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzukiblu/pseuds/suzukiblu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Superboy walks into the living room and, “I figured something out!” M’gann says excitedly, zipping up to him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kon-El | Conner Kent/M'gann M'orzz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>251</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>when I was a boy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/seagrey/gifts">seagrey</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for Seagrey, who wanted a genderfluid shapeshifter and gave me a few options; I picked M’gann, as the one I was most familiar with. </p>
<p>S1-era, and if anything contrary to canon happens, well, that’s because I never actually finished the series, hahawhoops. Sorry but not sorry, it’s fandom, okay, we all do what we want.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Superboy walks into the living room and, “I figured something out!” M’gann says excitedly, zipping up to him. </p>
<p>“Uh . . . you did?” he says, blinking at her in bemusement. </p>
<p>“I did!” She beams at him proudly, bobbing backwards in the air. Superboy is definitely the person she wants to show first. “Look!” </p>
<p>He looks. M’gann shifts, her body lengthening and curves flattening and clothes changing, and—</p>
<p>“Oh,” Superboy realizes, and M’gann beams even brighter at him from a decidedly male face, unable to contain her excitement. She’s been trying to shift into a boy for <i>so long</i>. </p>
<p>“What do you think?” she asks, turning a little circle. She kept the red hair and the freckles because she likes them and didn’t bother changing her skin to a human shade, but she definitely doesn’t look like a human girl anymore. She even changed her clothes into jeans and a T-shirt. </p>
<p>“That’s great, M’gann,” Superboy says, his face softening in that one way she loves to see, and she smiles widely and lands on the floor. She’s a little taller than him right now—not on purpose, she wasn’t really thinking about her height when she was changing—and it’s kind of funny to be looking down at him for once. “When did you figure it out?” </p>
<p>“Just today,” she says, adjusting her clothes. She made them looser than usual, since the boys usually wear looser clothes than Artemis does. “I wanted to show you first.” </p>
<p>Superboy gives her one of those soft looks again, and she smiles back at him. She loves that look so <i>much</i>. </p>
<p>“Do you like it?” she asks, tugging at her shorter hair. </p>
<p>“I always like how you look,” he says, which is sweet but not really the kind of answer she was looking for. </p>
<p>“Yes, but do you like how <i>it</i> looks,” she says in amusement. “I didn’t make it look weird or anything?” </p>
<p>“I don’t think so,” he says, looking her over. “You’re really tall.” </p>
<p>“Is that bad?” she says. </p>
<p>"No." He looks at her face again. She feels a little self-conscious; maybe it <i>does</i> look weird. She’s been trying so hard to figure out this form when it really shouldn’t be a complicated thing—she could already turn into a human girl, after all, and humans are much less different from each other than they are from Martians. The delicate little differences were what was tripping her up, though, and now she feels much better about them and much more comfortable with her results. </p>
<p>Unless they look weird, in which case she doesn’t. </p>
<p>“I still need to practice more,” she says, tugging at her hair again and growing it out a couple more inches. It’s a little <i>too</i> short, she thinks, although maybe now it’s too long. Hair is complicated, especially for humans. They’re <i>so</i> particular about it. “It’s still a lot easier to turn into a girl.” </p>
<p>“Is it?” Superboy says, and M’gann nods. </p>
<p>“I don’t know why, it just always has been,” she says. “I think it’s just easier to think like one? You’d be amazed how much the thinking helps.” </p>
<p>Superboy tilts his head, frowning faintly. </p>
<p>“Think like a girl?” he says. </p>
<p>“Yes,” M’gann says. “Thinking like a <i>boy</i> is different. I mean. Sort of. Actually it’s less different than I expected, it turns out, humans make it sound <i>miles</i> apart and it’s really not all that—you know, come to think of it, that was probably part of the problem. I was trying to turn into something much more different than I actually should’ve been. So maybe I won’t need that much practice after all.” </p>
<p>“That sounds annoying,” Superboy says. </p>
<p>“Well, some species really <i>are</i> that different,” M’gann says with a little shrug, tugging her hair a little longer again and threading her fingers through it. “Humans mostly just seem to be shaped a little differently, though. Oh, and the hormonal cycles are different too. I am <i>definitely</i> not staying a girl for another one of those.” </p>
<p>“Do you actually have to have periods?” Superboy says, looking puzzled. </p>
<p>“Not technically,” M’gann says. “I thought it would be cheating not to at first but, um . . . no. They’re awful and I’m never having one again. Especially not now that I can just be a boy instead.” </p>
<p>“Yeah, that makes sense,” he says. She smiles at him, and he smiles back, and his eyes are soft and he looks so <i>handsome</i>, and without thinking she puts a hand on his face and kisses him. He makes a little noise, and she startles. </p>
<p>“Oh!” she says, pulling back quickly as she realizes—“Sorry! Was that weird? Is it weird if I’m not a girl?” </p>
<p>“Why would it be weird?” Superboy asks with a frown, tugging her back down to kiss again. M’gann puts her arms around his neck and kisses back, because why would she do anything else? </p>
<p>“Just, humans think it’s weird sometimes,” she mumbles between kisses, mostly distracted by said kissing, which is so much more important. It feels a little different, with her body a different size and shape. She thinks she likes it. </p>
<p>“We’re not human,” he reminds her. He tilts his head into the next kiss and pushes a hand up her back and she sighs contentedly, tightening her grip on him. She might point out that he’s been socialized—kind of—like a human, but it doesn’t really matter. If Superboy doesn’t think it’s weird to kiss her when she’s in bodies that other people might be put off by, well, that’s just one more reason to like him, isn’t it. </p>
<p>She guesses this isn’t really that different from the Terror Twins thing, come to think of it. Right now she definitely looks a lot more like she usually looks than she did then, even if she’s taller and wearing jeans and a boy. </p>
<p>She wonders, sometimes, what he’d think of her <i>real</i> body, but, well . . . if anyone would be fine with it, she thinks it’d be him. </p>
<p>They kiss for a long time, ‘til M’gann is tingling all over and feels warm and sweet and like she could just melt away into nothing, and then they press their foreheads together and smile at each other and she is so, <i>so</i> glad Superboy doesn’t care if she’s not a girl all the time. </p>
<p>“It really doesn’t bother you?” she checks carefully as she leans back, because if it does . . . well. Then it does, she guesses, and she’s going to have to deal with that. </p>
<p>“I like you,” he says. “I don’t care what you’re shaped like.” </p>
<p>“Okay,” M’gann says, biting her lip. “Because I was thinking . . . I’d just like being a boy sometimes. It fits.” </p>
<p>“Fits?” he asks curiously. </p>
<p>“Not all the time,” she says. “Just, sometimes different bodies fit better than others. You know?” </p>
<p>“Not really,” he says, raising his eyebrows at her. “This is the only one I’ve tried out so far.” </p>
<p>“Right,” M’gann says sheepishly, not sure how to explain it to someone who isn’t a shapeshifter. “Just . . . it’s like how sometimes I want green skin and sometimes I don’t? Like I’m not in the right mood for it. Just . . . more.” </p>
<p>“Okay,” he says. </p>
<p>“That probably doesn’t make much sense, does it,” she says, searching his face. He still doesn’t seem bothered. </p>
<p>“It doesn’t have to make sense to me,” he says with a shrug. “If you like it better, you like it better.” </p>
<p>“Not all the time,” M’gann says. “But . . . sometimes, yes.” </p>
<p>“Okay,” Superboy says again, and tilts his head meaningfully. It takes her a second to realize he wants kissed again, because usually he’s not tilting his head <i>up</i> for that unless she’s flying. It’s a very easy request to fulfill, though, and M’gann is more than happy to. She kisses him, wrapping her arms around his neck again, and he puts his hands on her hips and kisses back. </p>
<p>It’s nice. </p>
<p>She’s really glad that Superboy . . . not <i>understands</i>, because he said himself that he didn’t, but that he isn’t upset or uncomfortable about it. She doesn’t want to stay in just one form, pretending like it always fits; it’s hard enough being human-shaped all the time. She especially doesn’t want to stay in just one form after how long it took to <i>manage</i> this form. She’s been trying to figure it out for so long, and it feels so good to get to have it now. </p>
<p>Really, everything she’s getting right now feels good. </p>
<p>Well . . . everything <i>he’s</i> getting, actually. </p>
<p>Hm. </p>
<p>Yeah, that fits a little better right now, doesn’t it. </p>
<p>He’ll tell Superboy that later, he decides, but for the moment he just kisses him again and relishes the difference.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <a href="http://suzukiblu.tumblr.com/">Tumblr!</a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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